The future of St. Albert’s Youth Community Centre hangs on whether or not its budget request for 2013 is approved by council.
The centre has submitted a business case asking for $175,000 in funding. In previous years it has received $100,000 from the city and another $100,000 in Family and Community Support Services grant money. The community services advisory board denied FCSS dollars to the centre in April over concerns with programming and duplication of services between the youth centre and the city.
The $175,000 total is more than the youth centre has received from the city in the past but less than it receives from both the city and FCSS grant.
Board chair Doug Campbell, a former youth centre executive director, said the board is trying to renegotiate its lease with property owner Amacon to occupy less space at Grandin mall. It has also reduced staff, recently eliminating the position of programming director.
“We’re also looking at being committed to being open only 30 hours a week, but how that might look in the future might be different,” Campbell said.
Campbell said fundraising dollars have dried up since the advisory board’s decision as he said many believe the youth centre is no longer open.
“Even potential donors are hesitant to donate until they see where the city is going with its support,” he said.
The board has said it might have to close – it asked the city for a funding commitment in the budget by the end of August. Instead the board met with city administration, as well as Couns. Roger Lemieux and Malcolm Parker and agreed to prepare a business case for the budget.
“I think their efforts are they would like to do what they can to keep the location open and that’s why administration put the business case before us,” Parker said.
Its proposal also highlights several proposed changes. The youth centre wants to start offering drop-in evenings at satellite facilities one or two nights a week, and is negotiating with some potential partners, Campbell said. It also wants to roll out more programming that better reflects the city’s goal of prevention, but is waiting for a council decision before launching.
“If we have more volunteers, we’ll have more capacity to open up more programs,” said Campbell, adding new volunteers are needed. “Our demand right now is for volunteers to assist with our evening programs.”
Council, sitting as committee of the whole, will discuss the youth centre’s funding request, as well as requests from other outside agencies, on Nov. 29.
